Putting a stop to office gossip

About a year ago, the human resources department at the Brand Consultancy Inc. in Washington came up with a rule: no more office gossip.

Er, um, make that no more "anaconda."

The company likens gossip to an anaconda, because, well, "what it does is wraps itself around people and literally sucks the wind out of them," says Vickie Hann, director of human resources.

Soon after she came up with the gossip-as-anaconda simile, the office was bedecked with Beanie Baby snakes, posters saying "No Anacondas!" and even a skit put on by Ms. Hann and several colleagues for new recruits and training sessions, illustrating what happens to a workplace when gossip (or an anaconda) runs rampant.

Hann swears it works.

"You hear people joking around here: 'Uh-oh! Someone's starting a rumor! No anacondas here!' "

There's no question gossip can be a dangerous thing. It can hurt careers and simply make people feel bad. It can bring down morale and make some question the maturity level of an office.

But offered or taken in the right way, it can also inform.

Blake Evans, a senior strategist and consultant at the Brand Consultancy, says he has seen instances in the past where gossip didn't seem so anaconda-like.

"It can buffer the reaction of a supervisor," he says. For instance, when a manager gets fed up with a co-worker of yours who doesn't seem to be pulling her weight this week, it's sometimes helpful for you to mention why that person has been late to work or early to leave – if you think the boss is going to be sympathetic and if, especially, your co-worker won't mind that you spread some "gossip."

Mr. Evans has different views on gossip depending on the subject matter and how it is handled. He believes that what a lot of people call gossip, he calls intelligence. But it depends on what this "intelligence" is.

When, for instance, a co-worker gives him a bit of information he or she heard about a competitor, it's intelligence. When it's an employee coming to him to talk about someone else at the organization, it's quibbling, or unnecessary gossip.

"Yes, it can be used to benefit," he says of some kinds of gossip. But when it comes to worker-on-worker gossip? "I have a personal problem with it myself, from an ethics point of view. I ignore a lot of it," he says. Or he puts it back on the gossiper by asking, "What are you going to do about it?"

Sometimes, gossip is simply a form of entertainment. In the case of at least one senator, according to a former aide of his, gossip is the thing that keeps life in the office interesting. "He has the dirt on everyone," she says. In fact, the person who replaced her called recently to ask where the senator got all of his inside information, most of which is just innocent chatter. More than anything, the new aide was just amazed that he found out as much as he did.

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